A company that makes wood products will receive a state grant worth up to $85,000 for expanding in Rowan County.

The governor's office announced this afternoon that Universal Forest Products plans to create 49 jobs and invest $2.6 million during the next three years in Salisbury, about 130 miles west of Raleigh.

The One North Carolina Fund grant, which must be matched by local incentives, requires Universal Forest to meet hiring and investment goals.
 
Universal Forest manufactures and distributes wood and wood-alternative products to the retail, construction, manufactured housing and industrial markets.

The state's cable TV industry is once again trying to quash what it deems unfair competition from local governments that provide their own TV and Internet services.

For the third consecutive year, the cable TV lobby has succeeded in getting legislation introduced in the N.C. General Assembly that would hamper competition from local governments. In the past two years the controversial bills got bogged down in legislative committees as supporters said that municipal broadband increases competition and Internet access.

The most recent incarnation of the bill, introduced last week in the state House and Senate, says it's contrary to good public policy to let a government agency compete with private industry for the provision of goods and services. 

What the legislators have in mind are super high-speed Internet services offered by the cities of Salisbury and Wilson. Wilson's Greenlight and Salisbury's Fibrant service offer Internet speeds 10 times faster than the current top speed offered by Time Warner Cable. Municipal broadband also offers e-mail service, phone service and hundreds of television channels.